Jan. 28, 2011

Digital Sampling and Remix Culture: Creativity or Criminality?

Musicians have always borrowed from others -- tunings, vocal styles, distinctive phrasings. But the advent of the sampler in the 80s brought borrowing into the digital age. Today, "sampling," or lifting a snippet of someone else’s work -- anything from a horn hit to a drum beat -- is mainstream. But how to credit and pay those earlier artists for their contribution is where things get thorny. How much of someone else’s work should artists be able to use? How much should they pay for it? Is copyright law stuck in the age of analog?